Author: Tonya

Posted on

Tonight is Latin!

Yes, my favorite! Tonight’s American Ballroom Challenge competition is the Latin event, the most popular in the U.S. (Standard is more popular in England). Look for:

Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kryuchkova, several times U.S. national champs. Andrei is tall and thin and he just flies across the floor. He’s one of my favorite Latin men.

A new favorite man of mine, Vaidotas Skimelis, whose large size both slows him down a bit in terms of sheer speed, but also gives him a kind of Maks Chmerkovskiy / Marcelo Gomes virile appeal. This is the couple for whom Pasha and Anya’s departure from competition last year kind of allowed in the door for finals — so one not completely horrible aspect of P & A’s absconding for Hollywood 🙂 Last year he and partner Jurga Pupelyte did a gorgeous showdance that had everyone talking.

A couple I’ve admired for a while, Delyan Terziev and Boriana Deltcheva. I’m not always in love with the themes they choose for their exhibition showdances, but on the floor, during the group numbers, I think they have really beautiful, unique artistry.

If you’re a “Dancing With the Stars” fan, watch for Anna Trebunskaya and her newish partner Pavlo Barsuk. About a year or two ago she and Jonathan Roberts broke up (as dance partners) and she’s been doing very well with Pavlo.

 

And finally, they’re not competing, as he’s now retired and she has a very new partner, but watch in exhibitions for current U.S. national champs and longtime beloved couple, Max Kozhevnikov and Yulia Zagoruychenko. Above is a picture of them from Blackpool last year, where they always give a lecture demo.

That’s tonight 8p.m. on PBS!

Posted on

Decent New Dancing With Stars Cast

Ugh, I’m such an idiot. When they said they were going to announce the new “Dancing With the Stars” cast on “Dance War” tonight, I thought they meant they were announcing the real stars! They only announced the celebrities! I’ve heard through the grapevine — from Sharon 🙂 — that Louis Van Amstel is dancing again, which I’m thrilled about since I regard him as the greatest ballroom dancer in the world right now. I heard Julianne Hough is dancing again as well. And besides that don’t know… I guess the show regards them as less important than the contestants, sadly… I do love how the announcement was made though — LOVE that Dance Center / Sports Center comedy sketch thingy — Kenny Mayne’s sense of humor has stolen my heart… and he with Jerry Rice and Lisa Rinna were hilarious with their goofy back and forth jabs at each other.

So the celebrity contestants:

First announced is Marlee Matlin, the actress whom I loved in “Children of a Lesser God,” but haven’t seen her in much of what she’s been in lately — TV shows, right? Well, I’m excited about her. I guess she’ll kind of be the Heather Mills of this season if you want to see it that way. Not being able to hear the music will obviously be a handicap, but, equally obviously, she’s someone who doesn’t let her hearing hinder her.

Second woman is Priscilla Presley, actress probably best known as Elvis’s wife. At 62, she’ll perhaps be the “Jane Seymour” of this season.

Next is Shannon Elizabeth, an actress I’m not really familiar with but apparently was in “American Pie,” and “hot,” as Jerry continuously pronounced her.

Fourth is Monica Seles, the tennis player who always used to grunt loudly when swinging that racket. The three commentators had fun ribbing on what kinds of noises she might make and whether they’d sound better in Latin or Standard.

Fifth is Kristi Yamaguchi — yay!!! I loved watching her skate. I used to take figure skating lessons and she was my role model; I so wanted to be her. I can’t believe she’s 36! As a skater, obviously she’ll have a big advantage here, but you never know what that’s going to mean…

Final woman is Marissa Jaret Winokur, Broadway actress from “Hairspray,” which, embarrassingly, I never saw. Commentators had some fun joking that her hair might be a big problem, as she may trip over it or it may get all tangled up in her partner.

Men are:

NFL player Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins. At first I couldn’t figure out what was up with that beefcake photo they put up of him, with Lisa’s pointing out the various “highlights” in his physique. Then I realized the other two commentators were NFL players so she was joking that he was by far the best looking footballer the show had ever had.

Second is Christian de la Fuente, good-looking Latin telenovella star, whom I’m not familiar with.

Then there’s Mario, the R&B singer and hip hop dancer, who will have the obvious dance-experience advantage.

Next is Steve Guttenberg — yay!!! I remember him from oooh so many movies, not the least of which, honestly, I’m so embarrassed to admit but the Village People movie. I honestly saw it when I was really really young and I fell head over heels in love with his cutely endearing dorkiness. Of course he’s best known for his role in “Three Men and a Baby,” which, yeah, he was good in that too 🙂 He’s got a great personality and I know I’m gonna eat him right up!

Then there’s Penn Jillette, the magician with Penn and Taylor. The thing about this guy is that he’s enormous — he’s 6’6 tall and has a shoe size that’s off the charts. It’ll be interesting to see who he’s partnered with.

And last is Adam Carolla, a comedian whom I’ve never heard of with a syndicated radio show. Does anyone else know of him?

Hmmm. Overall I’m more excited about the women, since I’m familiar with many more of them. But I do so love Mr. Guttenberg…

Okay, it’s been a long day. (I actually just got home — it’s midnight — and sped through what I’d taped to see the DWTS announcement parts; I’ll have to watch the rest of the show tomorrow.) More later…

Posted on

American Song & Dance and Russian Treasures

I had a most excellent ballet weekend. Friday night at NYCBallet was one of the best nights I’ve had at a ballet of mixed bills. The program was titled “American Songs and Dances,” and included three ballets — two by my favorite American choreographer Jerome Robbins and one by NYCB artistic director Peter Martins. The first “Thou Swell,” by Martins was one of the best things I’ve seen by him. It was a ballroomy ballet heavy on pas de deux (my favorite) in which four couples dance the night away to American classics like “Getting to Know You”, “Isn’t it Romantic”, “Blue Moon”, “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”, “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered”, and “The Lady is a Tramp” etc. etc. etc. The style is jazzy, Art Deco-y 1930s and a large, interestingly-shaped mirror hangs down over the back of the stage. I thought the mirror ever so cool both in its cut and how it allowed you to see the dancing from several different angles, but the guys next to me complained that it created distracting shadows.

 

 

Well, all I can say is there is no one sexier than a male ballet dancer in ballroom attire 😀 Perhaps that is to say there is nothing sexier than dance that looks like ballroom and IS a form of ballroom, but takes on a different cast and is all the more brilliant when combined with the poetry of ballet.

 

After Nikolaj’s farewell, I now can’t take my eyes off of Yvonne Borree. (all headshots by Paul Kolnick). She’s so sweet and so lovely. She danced here with Nilas Martins, my “Nikolaj replacement” and he did a fantastic mad sexy job both partnering her and with his own brilliant expressiveness. Whoever told me he was like Nikolaj in that department, that that ability to express and evoke and emote, bringing you to the edge of your seat, is a Danish thing, was so right! They were charming together and they are the new couple.

 

My other favorite couple was Amar Ramasar (duh!), dancing with Sara Mearns. He was so gorgeously dapper and, tall, dark and handsome, he stands far out from the crowd whether in a pas de deux or ensemble. And there is something so polished about his dancing. With his long legs, his kicks attain greater height than everyone else’s, and, overall he’s just always so suave.

Second on was “Ives, Songs” by Robbins, danced to the music of Charles Ives, the lyrics of which were, nicely, reprinted in the Playbill. A man, here the legendary (now retired) Robert LaFosse wanders around the stage watching dancers of various ages, perhaps his family, act out various dramas. It has a kind of “Norman Rockwell” evocation and makes you a bit sad as he relives scenes from his family life. Here Kathryn Morgan stood out to me — she kind of reminds me Margot Fonteyn. She just steals the scene without trying. I’m starting to notice Justin Peck a lot too. At one point his character goes off to war and he crashes to the ground with the perfect degree of pathos, a fallen soldier. But the person who really blew me away here was the singer, Philip Cutlip. His voice was a miracle and he enunciated every word so smoothly and with such emotion. Yet he didn’t take over; he was a perfect accompaniment to the dancers.

 

And third was Robbins’s magnificient, thrilling “West Side Story Suite.” Andrew Veyette completely blew me away. He danced the part Nikolaj did in his farewell — the leader of the Jets, with the singing role during “Cool It.” He belted out those lyrics far better than Nikolaj — I couldn’t believe a dancer could sing like that! Wow! And he and Amar, as leader of the Sharks, did the fight scene brilliantly. I don’t know how people don’t hurt themselves. Georgina Pazcoquin — oh my, that one can do anything! Anything! She played Amar’s girlfriend, Anita. She sang and danced “In America” like I’ve never seen it done before. She easily got a standing ovation. She must be seen more! This season she has easily become one of my favorite women. Robert Fairchild reprised his Romeo role, playing Tony here with all the youthful angst of the teenager he, unbelievably, still is! I think I stood behind his mother in the press ticket line — I’m not sure because she seemed very young (but then I have to keep reminding myself how young he is) when she happily announced her last name to the ticket guy.

 

Sorry for going a bit headshot-happy here. I just noticed Robert has a new one up, and I thought it was really good. 🙂

 

 

The only thing here: Amar. Surprisingly, he wasn’t all that hard-assed as an intimidating gang leader. He is just more the dapper ballroom gent, I guess. But I think it was partly his costume. I was sitting in the fifth row and I could have sworn they had him in corduroy pants, while everyone else was in jeans. The cords, with their flaring, preppy, schoolboy front pockets made his black tennis shoes look like top-siders. He just looked like a young college professor. Maybe it’s just that I’d just read a Jhumpa Lahiri short story in the New Yorker and the way he was dressed I kept thinking of the male model they had in the accompanying picture, but I just didn’t see him as a Tybalt-esque thug here.

Saturday night was Russian night 🙂 Entitled “Russian Treasures,” it celebrated Balanchine’s creations — some of his greatest — to Tschaikovsky’s music. First on was “Serenade”, one of my favorites, which I’ve written about here and here. Again, Yvonne Borree stood out here in her sweetness and charm. Second was “Mozartiana” — my first time seeing this one, as well as the one that followed, “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2” also titled “Ballet Imperial.” Since hearing Terry Teachout rave on about that latter one, I have been dying to see it and it was definitely my favorite of the two. “Mozartiana” (an early Balanchine) had a lot of the very typical back and forth of classical Petipa: pas de deux, male solo with bravura leaps galore, female solo with bravura fouettes galore, male solo ditto, female solo ditto, back to pas de deux again ending in faux happy togetherness. I’m not so into that; it bores me. I did like Daniel Ulbricht in this though — he was the perfect young Mozart as he jumped about youthfully illustrating his solid technique and perfect lines. He didn’t overdo it this time with sky-high leaps, and I liked him for that.

 

Balanchine created “Ballet Imperial” in 1941 for a traveling American Ballet Caravan, which, under the sponsorship of the Roosevelt administration, toured South America. He wanted to create a ballet that celebrated classical dance, while remaining uniquely his own. And that he did: it reminded me a lot of the “Diamonds” portion of “Jewels”, the last third of that ballet in which Balanchine pays loving homage to his native land with majestic ensemble dancing to a familiar, much- cherished Tschiakovksy score. (I wrote about that ballet here.) Originally, the program notes state, it was performed with a scenic backdrop illustrating the Neva River running through St. Petersberg, and Peter and Paul Fortress and gorgeous Winter Palace upon it. But, typical for Balanchine, he took out the background in 1973, feeling the ballet and music could stand on their own, which they can, but I still would have loved to have seen that backdrop! Jonathan Stafford stood out to me here, for the first time. He was magnificient in some high-flying assembles and with his height, he’s the perfect nobleman. Oh, and I just have to say, the pianist, Susan Walters, was breathtaking here! This company sure knows how to find the most excellent musical artists.

So sad though — this is the last week of NYCBallet’s Winter season…

Posted on

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!

 

Thursday night I got together with several friends and we went out to a great restaurant in Soho / Nolita, FR.OG (standing for “French Origine”; starting from left of table is: Allison, Marion, me, Kathy, and Alyssa). Dishes combine the flavors and spices of North Africa with French culinary style and technique. Though it was a bit pricey, and not something I’d do but for a special occasion, I found the food excellent.

 

I had the duck leg pastilla, delicious diced duck meat combined with what tasted to me like Moroccan spices in a light pastry shell coated with honey and almonds, along with lightly-dressed baby arugula side salad. Only thing was, no way could I eat even half of it, and it didn’t heat up so well the next day — the pastry crust was soggy by then and I could no longer taste the delicious honey-ed bottom. Why do restaurants serve such blasted big portions!!! Marion, from Ireland, said this was the first thing she noticed when she arrived here — American food portions are off the scale… I tasted her cigare of chicken, by the way, though I’m not usually a fan of chicken. But it was really unexpectedly juicy and the skin was crunchy and flavorful — the best chicken I think I’ve had.

And they had an excellent cocktail list. Frozen hot chocolate martini, mmmmm.

 

Maybe too excellent a cocktail list… Of course we HAD to try everything! And the drinks were so delicious you couldn’t really tell they contained any alcohol, until you stood up…

 

By the end of the evening we were a bit tipsy… and we suddenly somehow found ourselves downstairs near the kitchen trying to meet the chef. This was partly because we’d so enjoyed the food and were interested in knowing how it was prepared and where the chef came from (Queens, as it turned out), but also because, admittedly, a few members of our party were drawn to the restaurant because of the chef’s very attractive profile on the website 🙂 Poor man was more than a bit weirded out by all these women pawing at him and asking him questions galore. And I learned that a couple of my friends are apparently more cynical and untrusting even than I: because he seemed so stunned at all the attention, they suspected perhaps a line cook had been sent out to entertain us in lieu of the real chef. But I don’t think so — the guy in the middle above looks like chef Jarret Brody, right?… (If you aren’t taken to his pic on the link, click on “a place to eat”)

Anyway, fun night out with the ladies 🙂 If you’re ever in SoHo / Nolita, there’s lovely food to be found here. And you can request to meet the chef and see if you get the same guy…

Posted on

Bravo's STEP IT UP & DANCE Cast Revealed

Go here to see the cast of Bravo TV’s new dance show, “Step It Up & Dance.” This show, which is set to premiere April 3rd, is similar to “So You Think You Can Dance” in that dancers compete in several different dance styles, here for a cash prize of $100,000. I like this cast: there’s a diversity of training and dance style — from Tae Kwan Do to Ballet, with many trained in several styles — and a good age range.

Posted on

Hooray For Katusha and Arunas

The only thing I didn’t like about their showdance was that ending pose. Kind of a fish dive but not a real one or her arm wouldn’t be wrapped around his neck like that, and her bottom foot should be touching her top knee and it’s nowhere near it. Lifts actually always look a little weird in Standard because the shoes aren’t flexible and you can’t point your toes, so the line is off. Anyway, aside from the ending pose, I loved them — both their showdance and their group dancing. In particular I love him — better than her old partner Jonathan Wilkins even. He’s faster, swifter, and sharper — especially his Tango. That really blew me away. I’m happy for her that she ended up with someone like him. I had thought Jonathan retired from competition and that’s why they broke up, but I was wrong; he’s just moved back to his native England and is now competing for the UK with Hazel Newberry, a former British champion. It’ll be very interesting to see how they place respective to Katusha and Arunas in the world championships this year!

 

And I liked Urs Geisenhainer and Agnes Kazmierczak for almost the opposite reason.

 

They performed only to one song, but put several dance styles to it, including some Latin, and at the end even some breaking isolations. At points, such as the beginning, they uniquely combined Tango, a Standard dance with Cha Cha, a Latin. I’ve seen Latin dances combined with each other and Latin and Ballroom in one routine but with transitions between them. But I haven’t often seen Standard and Latin steps actually combined into one like that — it was like a Tango promenade / cha cha chas. Very cooly unique. And all of the dances looked equally good on them. Talk about versatility!

For exhibitions, as I said earlier, I love Austin Joson and Elizabeth Lakovitsky.

 

He keeps growing and growing; he’s starting to look like a little man. And only two years ago Elizabeth was a little girl. I know they’ve worked hard on their Paso Doble and it shows. They have a really cute jive and a sweet rumba too, but I think Paso is their favorite. That routine, with that kind of foreboding music, was rather mature, as cohost Ron Montez said! They have some polishing to do (and he has some more growing to do so he’ll catch up with her 🙂 ) but I think they’re going to be really great someday.

I liked this couple too, Anton Belyayev and Karolina Paliwoda, who recently turned pro.

Sometimes the best dancers are just coming from the amateur ranks. I thought her form was fantastic, and I love the simplicity both of their routine and costumes. As Montez pointed out, she had no rhinestones on that dress and I love that somone has the courage to do something different. There’s too much glitter in some of these ballroom comps and sometimes it’s meant to compensate for lack of quality in the dancing. And they performed basic steps with such clarity, Montez was even able to use them as a model for pointing out to the audience the elements of a proper rumba. Montez is a good host: he notices small details and he’s interested in imparting the mysteries of technique to the audience.

The only thing, Standard in general is just kind of boring on TV; it doesn’t come across the same as in a live comp — somehow part of the magic is lost, kind of like with some of the filmed ballet (particularly ensemble work). I don’t know why that is exactly. I guess it’s the weightlessness factor: dances that are more grounded, like Latin and Tap have more weight and don’t lose much resonance when reduced to two dimensions. More light, feathery, weightless dances like ballet and Standard Ballroom just lose impact when not three-dimensional. That’s Paul Parish’s theory anyway. Hmmmm.

Also, extremely annoyingly, the ABC website no longer contains an email address where you can email questions, and ABC isn’t a part of the Great Performances series, so I don’t know how to get a hold of them. A couple of people asked me about songs they used in the group dances. I’ll try to find out how to contact them, but often, the event organizers don’t even remember which songs they used. They usually have a bunch of songs suitable for each dance style already downloaded into the computer, so that someone just hits “Cha Cha” for a cha cha heat, or “Rumba” for that dance. I was so disappointed when I’d hear a song I loved and would ask around and no one had a clue what I was talking about. If you ever go to competitions, though, visit the shopping pavilion (where they have all the costumes). There’s usually a music vendor there and they have TONS of ballroom CDs for both Latin and Standard. They have tables and tables of headphones and walkmans and you can sit there for hours and listen. If you’re in NY, Worldtone has a decent selection. If you’re neither in NY nor have any comps near you, you can visit DanceVision website. A lot of the songs are repeated on numerous tapes, but even if you don’t find the particular song you heard that way, you’ll definitely find a million others. I’ll let you know, though, if can find ABC people! Annoying that they took the email address down!

Posted on

A Reason to Watch DANCE WAR Next Week, and Other Dance Show Stuff…

In case you didn’t hear yet, on next week’s “Dance War,” the new season of “Dancing With the Stars” contestants will officially be announced. Also, next week will be that show’s finale?! It seemed to go so fast; I was kind of shocked when they announced that last night.

Anyway, this week was “Latin Week,” which I felt pretty eh about — nothing new for me with this show. At least dance-wise I felt eh. Tango hooks in the opening number were sloppy — Kelsey had to re-adjust her position with her partner to get her foot wrapped around his leg. If she was as close to him as she should have been that wouldn’t have happened. But who am I to criticize someone for not maintaining the proper Argentine Tango frame — I was NEVER able to feel comfortable that close to the guy 🙂 — at least not random guys in class I didn’t know…

And is Bruno the king of hysteria-drenched, goofy similes or what? “I’ve taken more punches than Rocky!!!” he wailed with wild gesticulations, over losing twice in a row. I hate to admit it, but at some points, his nuttiness actually kind of grows on me… I’m glad he finally praised Carrie Ann’s team. He needed to do that to show he was a sport. It just really bothers me how he practically equates dance with sex. Those guys’ open-shirts in his second number — oh please! Same thing with the way he had Kelsey last week vamping it up Jessica Simpson-like in “These Boots Are Made For Walkin’.” Dance can be sexy, but when it’s so overt like that it just becomes silly and crass.

I did feel like the singing was a bit better this time — particulary from Zack on the Bruno team and Chris on the Carrie Ann team. When Chris “sang for his life” I have to say I was actually quite blown away. He’s had so many microphone malfunctions, I don’t think I’ve really heard him sing, but he has a pretty nice voice.

I think what annoys me most about this show is its general air of unreality. It was sweet when Phillip’s mom showed up to watch her son, but do the show’s producers really expect us to believe she couldn’t afford to travel from Virginina to California but lo and behold thanks to her church she was finally able to see her son fulfill his dream? Thanks to the show’s producers is more like it, if the whole thing wasn’t phony to begin with. And it was nice that team Bruno did some outreach at the Community Center for people with Downs Syndrome, but if they really were invited because Zack’s brother has Downs, it would’ve been nice if they showed some footage of the two of them together. And even team Bruno’s ultimately winning this time around … if they didn’t win would anyone really tune in next week; what fun is a shoe-in finale? And when Carrie Ann started crying when she lost — and the tears were really there; her face was all wet– I wondered which acting method she studied. There was so much fakery, when that Orville Redenbocher commercial came on — the one about the guy and his wife whose marriage was in serious trouble because she liked natural snacks and he didn’t, and he collapsed on the kitchen floor and started throwing food about madly — did you guys see it? I seriously thought it was a trailer for a new reality show.

Which brings me to MTV’s new show, “America’s Best Dance Crew.” I wrote about it for Huffington and will link as soon as it’s posted, but for now I just want to say, I really kinda like it. It has more authenticity: the competitors seem like real people; they’re kids you like and want to root for, and the judges take them seriously, and seem more interested in imparting constructive criticism than hogging the spotlight and playing “characters” themselves. It’s pretty good. MTV Thursday nights at 10 p.m.

Finally, don’t forget to watch PBS tomorrow night, Wednesday, for “America’s Ballroom Challenge.” It’s Standard, where lovely ladies in beautiful, flowing, bejeweled ballgowns are swept around the floor by their dapper tux ‘n tailed gents. I initially fell in love with ballroom through this dance style, although I’m afraid it looks very different on TV than live and some of the magic is taken away. Anyway, I will be very excited to see US National champ and second in the world, Katusha Demidova, with her new partner, Arunas Bizokas. Also, in the exhibitions, watch for the pro/am couple Max Kozhevnikov and his student Yuk Chun (for people who follow ballroom, Max is the former partner of popular Latin dancer, Yulia Zagorouychenko), and in the junior division Austin Joson and Elizabeth Lakovitsky. These kids train at my old studio and I’ve written about them previously here and here. Austin in particular is a little cutie, and he ROCKS! Okay PBS at 8 pm EST!

Posted on

Apollinaire and Diana!

My friend Apollinaire Scherr has an excellent article on the bewitching ballerina Diana Vishneva in this week’s New York Magazine! Apollinaire makes me so jealous the way the writes about dance 🙂 And check out the spellbinding photograph by Armen Danilian.

Vishneva will be performing next week at City Center with Desmond Richardson from Complexions Contemporary Ballet. The two will dance choreography by the man everyone in NY is talking about these days, Alexei Ratmansky. Go here for tix and info.

Posted on

Farewell To A True Artist

So sad! So, yesterday was Nikolaj Hubbe‘s final performance with the New York City Ballet. He will now return to Denmark to head the Royal Danish Ballet. I am really going to miss him. There are lots of great dancers, but he was a true artist, bringing every step he did to a higher level.

A wide range of dances were on yesterday’s bill, showing his extreme versatility. The afternoon began with Balanchine’s poetic 1928 “Apollo,” the story of a boy / god who matures into a man, with the help of course of three other-worldly muses, or as Tobi Tobias defines it, “the saga of a soul … finding its identity.”

We then saw “Flower Festival in Genzano,” a short piece choreographed by August Bournonville, fitting since he founded the Royal Danish and Nikolaj excelled in his ballets there early in his career. Here, Nikolaj did not perform himself but two young dancers whom he’s trained in the School of American Ballet — the marvelous and charismatic Kathryn Morgan, whom I’d seen as Juliet in Martins’ Romeo + Juliet, and a young corps member, David Prottas, whom I’ve noticed before but only in the corps, and who blew me away yesterday. He has lovely long legs that make a breathtaking line and, as I’ve noticed before, he does every little step with such clarity and precision. He stands out. I’m serious about noticing his curly headed, long-legged excellence in the corps before — in ballets like “Square Dance;” I just never said anything because I was once told by a critic friend that it’s bad luck for an up and coming dancer to laud them too much early on — like it jinxes them or something, and perhaps because I just didn’t have the confidence to say what I thought of someone no one else had mentioned. I’m so glad Nikolaj used him in this all-important piece on his farewell program. It makes me feel like I’m not a total idiot and can spot talent and artistry too 🙂

Then came “Zakouski,” a Peter Martins ballet. To be honest, I’ve never been all that in love with Martins’s choreography (apart from the recent “Grazioso”) but once Nikolaj stepped out on that stage I felt completely different. It’s a cute story of the different facets of one couple, actually performed by two different pairs. Nikolaj danced one of the pairs with his longtime partner, Yvonne Borree, and the other partnership was danced by one of my new favorites Andrew Veyette, and sweet Megan Fairchild. Nikolaj and Yvonne had the more mature roles, their dance infused with sexy tango-like movements, which he performed perfectly sharply, sexily, manly. I love him! He also brought out the magic in Yvonne — so, he brought out the magic in both Peter and Yvonne.

When they took their curtain call for this one, it was so sad. Yvonne was crying uncontrollably; his shirt was wet all down one side with her tears. It almost made me cry. Below is a Paul Kolnick picture of them together, not in this dance but another.

The last section was “Cool” from Jerome Robbins’s “West Side Story Suite,” in which Nikolaj actually sang a little! And the program ended with Balanchine’s cowboy and saloon-girl-inhabited tribute to the American West, “Western Symphony.” I guess it’s good that I got Nilas Martins confused with Nikolaj a couple of times in this final ballet. There will still be a Nikolaj-reminder for me in the company.

Here’s a nice little write-up on Nikolaj’s career in Playbill.

As always with hugely important performances like this, the whole day is just one big event, in which everyone in the ballet world, and often beyond, partakes. I no more than got seated when I heard a man and woman fighting behind me. Apparently, she had said too loudly, “Look, there’s Baryshnikov!” thereby embarrassing him. I looked and looked but could not find him. This is likely because I’d just seen my love, hairy-faced and sporting big black chunky glasses, make his besuited entrance. He sat in the first row right smack in the center and chatted with lady next to him. During each intermission I caught him with dancers in his usual hang-out place — on the right side of the theater either on the promenade or the ground floor. Anyway, after I got myself seated for the second intermission, I tucked my legs under me to let passersby get to their seats, and right as his leg brushed mine, I looked up and saw Misha’s face. He was just sitting a few seats down from me and I didn’t even notice him! In the row behind me was Alexei Ratmansky, the director of the Bolshoi who may take over as artistic director of NYCBallet. During second intermission, I saw Philip and Wei and Philip asked me to ask him what his decision was on that (apparently he had to decide by the day before or something). I said no way, I’m way too shy! I also ran into Sarah, and Monica. Others wrote accounts of the day by the way: here is Philip’s and here is Sarah’s.

Of course the final curtain call was horrendously sad. It went on for maybe twenty minutes. There was confetti, bizillions of flowers, everyone in the company past and present went up onstage to hug and kiss him.

Nikolaj will give his final dance performance in April with the Royal Danish. During intermission Monica said under her breath, “Hmmm, I wonder if I have any reason to go to Copenhagen in April?…” I was thinking exactly the same thing. Do we need more of a reason though?!

Posted on

Carnival in Tribeca!

 

I didn’t get around to going to the real Carnival this year, so this weekend I went with a couple of friends, Kathy and Alyssa, down to the Lafayette Bar & Grill in Tribeca for a little end-of-Carnival Samba party. It was hosted by a Samba meet-up group I joined a while ago but whose meet-ups I never had the courage to attend, owing largely to an insane experience I had in Quenia Ribeiro‘s Samba class at the Alvin Ailey extension.

Well, I am happy to say that this time, though I was nowhere near perfect, or even good, I did much better! Or at least I felt much better. The meet-up group’s founder, Marizete, who is from Brazil, began the evening with a little class. She first taught us the steps, which were so much more basic and easier than anything I’ve learned in ballroom Samba and certainly than Quenia’s class. Quenia’s class was more focused on Bahian Samba, or Samba Reggae, which seemed more African and even a little hop-hop infused than what I was used to with ballroom. But Marizete taught only the Rio style, whose steps are smaller, and, to me, more basic than Bahian style. And the emphasis is more on sexiness, attitude and just overall style than on detailed traveling movement patterns, difficult isolations, and changing rhythms. The basic is simply, crossing one foot in back of the other, sliding the other foot a little bit forward and then bringing the back foot up to meet the front with a little hop. And then added with that were some pelvic rolls while standing, pelvic rolls while bending knees and going all the way down to the floor, then pelvic rolls while turning slowly in a cirle, and, at the end she added some pretty arm movements.

Here she is showing us how to roll our hips. It was a lot of fun, and way way way the hell easier than the Bahia / Reggae style, for me. I just look like such a goof trying to do African dance, although I’d really like to be good at that some day. The only thing so ridiculously hard for me to master in Marizete’s class was doing so many things at once — I’m so uncoordinated! I was fine with the basic, fine with the pelvic / hips rolls, but once we started trying to turn in a circle doing the pelvic rolls, I just couldn’t seem to manage both at once. And once the arms were added, forget it. I was going in the wrong direction, bumping butts with poor Kathy, whacking the guy on my other side with my arm, moving my hips in the same direction I was turning in instead of opposite, which I think was the way it was supposed to be… I was a mess! Thankfully there were so many people on that crowded floor, I don’t think anyone really saw me making mistakes galore. Most of the people were not experienced (unlike those crazy Ailey students) so I didn’t feel like that much of an ass. And, I think with practice this is something I could actually do okay.

Here she is trying to teach us the arms.

After the class, we all sat down and had some drinks and dinner, and listened to a Bossa Nova / jazz band, which was lovely. Of course they performed some samba too, in honor of Carnival. And there was some general dancing. I watched Marizete dance with several guys and it was really interesting to see they way they partnered. They were connected and maintained the normal frame, like in regular partner dancing, but they each kind of did their own thing; it wasn’t formal ballroom at all. The guys would just kind of lead her in a certain direction and she would do the Carnival-samba basic with her regular cute bouncy hop, even though the guys weren’t doing the samba basic but just kind holding her and walking her around the floor. There was another woman there who was very good, who was doing the same thing only way faster. It was like watching a Carnival dancer going at her own pace, but maintaining connection with a guy who was just kind of going at a quarter her speed and then not even doing the same footwork. So it looked very asymmetrical, but it still somehow worked. I so want to dance like Marizete and the other woman I saw.

During the band’s breaks, Marizete played some tapes she’d brought of recorded live music at past Carnivals in Rio. Everyone got out on the dance floor and just bopped around to those. Even people who couldn’t really do samba, who’d missed the class or forgotten the basic got out there; we all just did our own thing. Even if you don’t know what you’re doing, the rhythm just gets you!

Then, at the end, a local band, “Manhattan Samba,” played, and they were fantastic! They were all percussion like a regular street band, and had a leader bearing a whistle around his neck blowing out directions. Marizete came out dressed in a Carnival costume and danced a few numbers.

Here’s one of the band. They were having a blast, as were we just listening to them. There is nothing more infectious than a Samba percussive band; nothing!

To Marizete’s left is one of the guys she was dancing with, whom I think she’s taught. I wish she would teach more formal lessons. She seems to create such a nice, fun, social, very informal atmosphere, which for me, is so much more conducive to learning than being around already-perfect dancers, like I found at Ailey. Although Ailey was more challenging and I’d like to go back to Quenia’s classes when I’m better, I need something more basic for now, until I have more confidence.

Anyway, very fun night. The only drawback was the wait-staff at Lafayette Bar & Grill. So nasty. First our waitress was very annoyed when we asked her for a bit more time deciding on our order. Later, when asked for more water, she basically reprimanded us, telling us she “can’t be walking around with the water pitcher.” We waited about twenty minutes until we were able to get the attention of a busboy. At one point another waitress crashed into me, then instead of apologizing harrumphed; apparently I was standing in her way trying to take a picture. About half an hour before the show was over, our waitress threw down our check saying gruffly, “show’s gonna be over soon.” When we looked at the bill, it was more than we’d expected. When I added it all up, I realized they’d already added a $12 “service charge.” This was in addition to the cover charge we paid to get in, so I assumed it was a mandatory tip. While I understand why they do that for large parties, we were only three. I think if they’re going to host special events there, they should train their wait-staff a bit differently…

Posted on

It's Up!

Yipee, my Huffington Post blog is up! My first piece is a general rumination on the current dance craze on TV — kind of similar to my Explore Dance article, but more personal, from my own experiences as a ballroom dancer and balletomane, and more focused on the popularity in general than critiquing the individual shows. I’ll post there, soon hopefully, about the new dance show on MTV, “America’s Best Dance Crew.” Photo, meh, but at least no moustache, right 😀